06/25/2013

The National Organization For Marriage's Communications Director, Thomas Peters, has laid out seven reasons why he believes the Supreme Court should refrain from offering deserved freedoms to same-sex couples. This one is the most outrageous, by far:

A broad ruling in favor of redefining marriage would be represent the most urgent threat to the religious freedom of pro-marriage Catholics and other Christians we have ever witnessed in this country. Countries that have redefined marriage (think Canada) are actively and aggressively fining and imprisoning Christian pastors and Catholic priests and bishops who continue to speak the truth about marriage and human sexuality from the pulpit. Stories like the ones told on the Marriage Anti-Defamation Alliance website reveal that private citizens will also see their rights and livelihoods threatened.FULL: 7 REASONS WHY WE SHOULD BE PRAYING FOR THE SUPREME COURT THIS WEEK [Catholic Vote]

Bull crapskees! No. Just–no.

The one incident people like Thomas always point to is the matter of Rev Stephen Boissoin. In 2002, that pastor wrote a truly vicious public letter in which he condemned gay people (he described us as "just as immoral as the pedophiles, drug dealers and pimps that plague our communities”) and quite literally declared war against our movement ("My banner has now been raised and war has been declared so as to defend the precious sanctity of our innocent children and youth, that you so eagerly toil, day and night, to consume.") A few weeks later, a local gay teenager was badly beaten, and some tied the incident to Boissoin's provocation. Since that incident, there has been debate about the limits of speech, there in a country that doesn't have the same free speech protections as the United States. You can read more about the Boissoin situation in this Box Turtle Bulletin post.

Regardless of where you stand on the Boissoin situation and whether his speech went to far, the fact of the matter is that this is one very unique, isolated, and complex situation. This is not one example of a countless cache of pastors and priests who are daily harassed across the land to our north. Thomas wants you to think that it is, because Thomas is a paid activist who has bought into his movement's aggressive "victim" meme. But it's simply not so.